Beta Read by Lupus Overkill


Shizu's Notes for Takumi's Trial

Character Profiles – The notes I built from talking with everyone here. Some of these notes may be incorrect due to incorrect speculation, but they still hold my gut feelings about everyone.

Rules – The rules of the Ultimate Game. They give us some idea of what's impossible for people to do, though there may be loopholes to exploit.

1. Violence against Monokuma is explicitly forbidden.

2. We are not allowed to force our way past any areas marked with Monokuma's face.

3. Nighttime begins at 12 am and ends at 8 am. Announcements will be made at both times.

4. Punishments vary in severity.

5. Monokuma may change the rules at any time.

6. In order to win the game, we must kill someone without anyone else figuring out that we are the culprit.

7. A body discovery announcement plays once three people discover a body for the first time, which signals the start of a trial.

8. A majority vote for the correct culprit results in punishment for them, while an incorrect majority vote results in everyone else being punished and that person getting to go free. The punishment for either party is execution.

Dining Hall Restrictions – At nighttime, the doors to the dining hall are marked with Monokuma's face. Thus, during that time, it is impossible to access the dining hall, kitchen, pantry, and freezer. Monokuma uses this period to restock food and keep everything clean.

Alibis – What everyone claims to have done yesterday and this morning. These probably will not be helpful for this particular case, but it never hurts to collect more information.

- Everyone except for the split group met for breakfast yesterday.

- Michio, Kazuha, Tsubame, Hachi, Pal, Kaixi, and Joshua met for dinner yesterday at 6 PM. Pal split off from the group after he finished eating.

- Michio, Kazuha, Tsubame, Hachi, Kaixi, and Joshua went to lounge after dinner at 7 PM. I joined them around 10 PM. I remember Joshua leaving around 10:30 PM, and I left around 11 PM. Tsubame and Hachi left together around 11:30 PM. Kazuha left a little before 12 AM. Michio and Kaixi were the last ones there, and left around 1 AM.

- Pal spent the day trying to draw the others out. He talked with me around 11 AM and saw Chouki around 1 PM, but he was unsuccessful otherwise.

- Sawako stood guard at the storage room from 10 AM to 10 PM. I was the only person she saw during that time.

- Samia took inventory of the infirmary after eating breakfast. She stopped to eat dinner at 9 PM and then went to bed.

- Kogi spent the entire day in his room, only coming out to handle laundry matters. He took three trips, which were at around 9 PM, 10 PM, and 11 PM. He only saw me on that day during his last trip.

- Fumika never left her room at any point yesterday

- Chouki only left his room around 1 PM yesterday. He didn't mention seeing anyone, though he could have just viewed that information as non-important.

- Morgan was busy "communing with spirits" or whatever yesterday and did not leave her room at all.

- Soraru got breakfast at 11 AM, and then went back to xer room. At 1 PM xe started making xer cakes and ran into Chouki. Xe also talked with me around 2 PM. After xer cakes were done, xe went back to xer room for the rest of the day.

- Michio, Sawako, and Hachi met up around 8:30 AM today and found Takumi's body. Kaixi, Chouki, and Samia also met up after the body discovery announcement played. Shortly afterwards, Tsubame and Pal came to the dining hall together. Kazuha ran over to the dining hall by herself, as did Kogi. Soraru didn't run into anyone this morning until xe got to the dining hall. Morgan heard the announcement and came alone after getting ready for the day. Joshua slept in and never made it to the dining hall.

Body Discovery (Takumi) – The announcement played when Michio, Sawako, and Hachi discovered Takumi's body in the dining hall a little after 8:30 AM.

Status of Takumi's Body – His only external injury is on the back of his head. According the Michio, it was most likely caused by a blunt object. Because of this, it is incredibly bloody.

Takumi's Cereal – Takumi's last meal was a bowl of cereal with milk. From the looks of things, he barely had the chance to eat any of it. The half-empty box is still sitting there, as if he had just poured it out.

Takumi's Bag – The bag that Takumi normally wears on his head is missing. It is unknown whether the culprit disposed of it or he simply chose not to wear it, though the latter seems unlikely.

Infirmary Supply Shifting – All of the sleeping pill and poison bottles were moved back to their original position. Samia claims to have only noticed this today, and she isn't sure if it happened earlier.

Poison Details – The poison is lethal enough to kill someone within a minute of them ingesting it. It also causes blood clots to appear over the victim's body. It should be kept refrigerated when not in use.

Sleeping Pill Details – A single pill is enough to put someone to sleep for about four hours. The pills are tasteless and odorless.

Sheets in the Washing Machines – Someone put sets of sheets into the washing machine early this morning. I found this out around 8:30 AM when I went to do my own laundry. At this time, they had twenty minutes left in their cycle.

Washing Machines – There are only two working washing machines in this building. They have three settings on them: short, which takes thirty minutes, medium, which takes fifty minutes, and long, which takes around two hours.

Cake Traps – The second floor elevator and stairwell were rigged to drop cake on people. A transparent wire was set up to knock over some shelves, which would cause cakes resting on dishes to slide onto the head of the person who stepped on said wire. It looks as though it required a lot of setup time.

Broken Transparent Wire – This is the wire that I tripped over this morning. It's transparent, which makes it very hard to see. Unless you knew it was there, it is unlikely that you would be able to avoid it.

Milk Cartons – Hachi discovered that someone lined up the milk cartons in the kitchen's fridge so that they blocked part of the fridge from view. Something could be hidden there, but nothing of the sort was found.

Plastic Bag – Chouki found a torn-open, slightly wet plastic bag in the trash can in the kitchen. Nothing else was found in the trash.

Red Towels – Fumika discovered that a few of the towels in the pantry's cleaning closet were slightly wet. Someone probably wiped up something, but, due to the towels' red color, we are unable to tell if it's blood for now.

Freezer Container – There's a large container full of ice cream at the back of the freezer. It's possible to hide something large inside, but I was unable to verify whether something was inside or not.

Michio's Autopsy of Takumi – The cause of death is unknown. The time of death was sometime late last night. Due to time constraints, this information may not be entirely accurate, no matter what Michio says.


Ultimate Trial Start

Monokuma clears his throat once everyone has settled in behind their podiums. "Now then, let's begin with a simple explanation for how the Ultimate Trial will work. Over the course of the trial, you will present your arguments for who you think Takumi's killer is. At the end, you'll vote for whodunit! If you vote correctly, then I'll have the culprit executed. But if you pick the wrong person, then I'll execute everyone besides the culprit, and only they will be allowed to leave this place alive."

"That's such a cruel rule…" Tsubame mumbles. "No matter what we do, we're going to lose at least one more person. I can't even bear to think about it."

"You'd better start bearing to think about it or it's all of our necks on the line," Chouki retorts. "Don't start going soft on us because you're feeling sympathy for a murderer. It's us or them."

Hachi makes a choking sound. "B-but what if that's just what Monokuma wants us to think? What if he's just trying to divide us and there is no murderer?"

"Then why did Takumi die?" Kogi asks, starting directly into her eyes. When she tries to look away, he persists. "The only other option is that he committed suicide. Is that what you're suggesting?"

"N-no, that's not it at all!" she fervently denies. "But w-why are we just trusting Monokuma? H-how do we know that h-he isn't the k-killer?"

"Trying to shift the blame onto me, huh? I won't let you do that!" Monokuma bangs his paw on the desk like a gavel.

Fumika stares at him, as if challenging him. "But we don't have any guarantee that you weren't responsible for anything we found today. Even if you weren't directly responsible for Takumi's death, you might have played a hand in getting rid of evidence or hiding things for the culprit."

"Y-yeah!" Kaixi agrees. "You're totally suspicious. You're definitely behind it all!"

"No, no, no! I'm the judge, and the judge is impartial! I had no hand in any crime committed today, nor will I ever have a hand in any future crimes." He stops his ranting to scratch his chin. "Well, besides kidnapping and blackmailing, but those are pretty minor when compared to murder."

"Let's make it official then," Shizu challenges him. "Add those stipulations to the rules."

"Fine, if it makes you happy, then I'll add it." Clearing his throat, he then dictates a new rule. "Rule 9: I, that is Monokuma, will never be responsible for a murder or cleanup of a crime scene, barring punishments of course. There, you happy now?"

"All of our lives are on the line. Do you really expect me to be happy?" she deadpans.

Monokuma winks at her. "Great! Then, without further ado, let the Ultimate Trial commence!"


Rules (Updated) – The rules of the Ultimate Game. They give us some idea of what's impossible for people to do, though there may be loopholes to exploit.

9. With the exception of punishments, Monokuma will never kill or tamper with a crime scene.


Despite the cheerful declaration, nobody seems to want to say anything. It's as if they're all worried that, by getting the discussion started, they'll unleash some terrible beast that will devour them all. Perhaps the beast of suspicion, if such a creature even exists…

As she muses about this, Joshua decides to break the silence. "So… uh… What exactly are we doing here? I kind of missed all of the preamble due to the whole being super asleep thing."

"We need to find out who killed Takumi. Is there something about that which mystifies you?" Morgan asks.

He tugs on his beanie awkwardly. "Well, I mean, I kind of get that, but, like, how? Is there some sort of protocol we're supposed to be following? Are we supposed to figure out anything else as well? I'm kind of confused where to start…"

"Don't worry, I've got you." Soraru winks and gives a thumbs-up. "We just need to start randomly accusing people until someone fesses up. This is clearly the best strategy. Let's start by yelling at Chouki!"

"What? What kind of stupid logic is that?" Chouki yells.

Xe simply grins. "Well, you've been nothing but a big Grumpy Gus this entire time, so it's probably your fault."

Tracing the tattoos on his veins and sighing, he growls, "Oh like you've been any better. You've been doing nothing but pranking people ever since we got here. Maybe you're the one who snapped!"

At this accusation, xe starts sniffling. "W-what? Do you really think that I'd k-kill someone?" Tears start to leak from xer eyes. "H-how could you say something like that?!"

"H-hey, it's okay, Soraru," Kazuha attempts to console xem. "There's no need to cry. Chouki's just being mean."

Fumika groans. "And Soraru's just being fake. Don't fall for xer games, not at a time like this."

Michio slams both of his hands onto his podium, silencing everyone immediately. "Guys! We're not getting anywhere like this. Randomly accusing people isn't going to get us anywhere," he pleads, his hands shaking as he grips the front of his podium. "We need to start from some grounded place, something that we know definitely happened. If we try to solve all of the mysteries, or even just the biggest mystery, right at the start, we're going to hit a big brick wall."

"Michio is correct." Sawako throws her hat into the ring and announces, "Suspecting each other is unfortunately inevitable, but, for now, it's best to treat everyone as if they are innocent. Innocent until proven guilty is important. Please do not forget that."

"Start with… what we know?" Pal thinks this over. "But… what do we know?"

"We know that Takumi died," Joshua offers, though even he sounds like he thinks it's a joke.

Kaixi, however, takes it seriously and snaps his fingers. "Oh! We also know that he died in the dining hall."

"We don't necessarily need to talk about Takumi's death either," Samia supplies. "We know who discovered Takumi's body first, and we have a general timeframe for when that discovery happened. Things along those lines are also helpful."

Shizu decides to take charge. "In that case, let's start with what first happened this morning. If we talk about it enough, we may come to some revelations. At the very least, we'll catch up anyone who isn't aware of something obvious."

"Hi, it's me, the person who isn't aware of something obvious." Joshua waves awkwardly.

"Alright, enough talking about what we're going to talk about, let's actually starting talking about it!" Soraru yells.

As the others nod in agreement, Shizu decides to listen in for now. As much as she would like to immediately jump in and lead everything, it may be prudent to try and see where people have misconceptions before barreling past them. With that in mind, she listens into the discussion.


Nonstop Debate Start

Tsubame: We're starting with what we found this morning, yes?

Hachi: W-well, we were the first ones to find his body…

Joshua: Uh…We? That's kinda vague.

Michio: She means me, herself, and Sawako. The three of us were the first ones on the scene.

Sawako: It was around the time for the morning meeting, a little after 8:30 if I remember correctly.

Pal: So Takumi was… killed some time before then

Chouki: Someone snuck up behind him and nailed him in the back of the head.

Hachi: It was only a single blow… but it was enough to kill him. He never even saw who killed him.

Pal: His last meal… was one that he… could not have predicted.

Shizu: And there's the mistake.

Michio's Autopsy of Takumi

enough to kill him

BREAK


"You're wrong, Hachi," Shizu shouts over everyone else's voices.

Hachi looks extremely taken aback by being called out so boldly. "H-huh? D-did I say something stupid?"

"Not stupid, just incorrect." She moves onto her explanation before Hachi can dwell too long in her negativity. "You claimed that Takumi was killed by the blow to the back of his head, correct?"

Kazuha looks a little confused. "Huh? Is there something wrong with that? I thought that was his only injury."

Shizu nods. "That is true, but that blow is not what killed him."

"You have some kind of proof to back this up, right?" Fumika crosses her arms and looks unimpressed. "That's a pretty bold claim you've got there, so I hope you're not expecting us to follow you along blindly like a pack of sheep."

"Don't take my word for it. Ask Michio. He's the one who did the autopsy." She gestures over to the coroner, giving him the floor.

Nodding firmly, Michio confirms this. "Shizu is correct. According to my investigation, Takumi was not killed by being struck by a blunt object. I'm not saying that he wasn't severely injured by that hit, but it isn't what caused him to die. That was something else."

Everyone stares at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to continue. "Uh… you uh… you doing alright there?" Joshua asks.

"Hmm?" Michio turns to face him, a confused look on his face. "I know what I said was probably shocking, but I assure you that my autopsy was correct."

"Yeah, that's not really the issue," Kogi deadpans.

Michio glares back. "Well, then what is? I'm a coroner, not a mind reader."

Snapping her fingers, Morgan draws all of the attention in the room towards her. In a powerful voice, she answers, "Your information is lacking. You claim to be the Ultimate Coroner, yet you have not given us the true cause of death. If the blow to the back of Takumi's head was not the fatal injury, please take this time to enlighten us."

"Yeah!" Soraru pokes Michio in his chest several times. "Quit hiding things. What kind of person would hide anything at a time like this? A real jerkface, that's who!"

"Hey, hold on a second!" Michio leans away from xem and slaps xer hand away when xe continues to attempt to bother him. "I'm not hiding anything. I told you everything that I know."

"So…" Pal muses, "You are unaware… of what actually killed poor Takumi. Is this the thing… which you are attempting… to get across?"

"If I knew what the cause of death was, don't you think I would have lead with that?" He shoves his hands into his trench coat pockets. "Come on guys, did you really think I would forget something so important?"

Chouki scoffs. "Well, it's not that far-fetched. I'd say that the cause of death is one of the single most important things for us to know, and you somehow forgot to even check what it was."

"Hey, I'm sure he was trying his best." Kaixi leaps at the chance to defend Michio. "Maybe it was just really hard for him to figure out?"

"Too hard for the Ultimate Coroner?" Chouki retorts.

"Too hard for the Ultimate Coroner until a strict time limit and without the proper tools for half of said time limit," Shizu elaborates. "Michio did as much as he could with the resources he had at his disposal. We can't expect him or anyone else here to do the impossible. Being an Ultimate is not the same as being a superhero."

This shuts Chouki up, and he looks down at the ground and pouts. It appears as though he has some kind of rebuttal, but it must not be a very good one since his mouth is clamped shut.

"W-well, that's nice and all, and I really respect Michio's work, but this kind of leaves us in a huge bind," Kazuha worries.

Sawako bites her lip in frustration. "If we do not know the cause of death, we will again be at an impasse. And if the Ultimate Coroner could not figure it out…"

"I-it's impossible?!" Hachi gasps.

Tsubame quickly jumps in. "No, no, let's not think about it like that. We all did our in investigations. With all of us combined, I'm sure that we can figure out what killed Takumi. We already have a huge hint in that it wasn't because of his injury."

"Tsubame is correct," Morgan asserts. "There are many ways to arrive at the same information. Asking the spirits, performing an autopsy, discussing with our friends… are these not all different paths that all lead to the same road?"

"…Let's just start talking about what the cause of death could have been." While Shizu is thankful for someone moving things forward, she could do without the theatrics.

"Hold on one second." Kogi holds out his hand to signal everyone to stop and look at him. Once he has their attention, he continues his thoughts. "Why exactly are we trusting what Michio said?"

"Because he did the autopsy?" Hachi tilts her head in confusion. "I mean, we can't really trust anyone else who didn't do the autopsy…"

"Do you think he made a mistake?" Kaixi asks.

Leaning on his podium with one hand, Kogi rolls his eyes. "What a pain… You're missing the point entirely. How do we know that Michio is telling the truth?"

"Excuse me?!" Michio looks both horrified and intensely offended by the accusation.

Kaixi hurries to back him up. "What? Why would he lie?"

Fumika drums her fingers impatiently. "Because he might be the culprit."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't try to pin this on me!" Michio shouts. "Just because I found something strange while doing the autopsy, that means that I'm suddenly the killer? You've gotta be kidding me!"

"But it is true… Your autopsy was a little strange. I don't want to be rude, but it's only natural that some amount of doubt would be placed on you." Tsubame doesn't look at all comfortable saying this, as she's trembling even as she speaks.

Gritting her teeth, Sawako mutters, "Did we not just agree to hold off on accusations?"

Samia shakes her head. "This is a different case. The entire foundation for the crime rests on how Takumi died. If we can't be sure of what really killed him, then we're in trouble. And, right now, we've got someone who's acting pretty suspiciously."

"Because you're all accusing me." As Michio raises his hands in the air in exasperation, he seems more annoyed than frightened. "Seriously, haven't any of you seen an innocent person get accused before? You can't convict someone just because they seem suspicious, because seeming suspicious is completely subjective."

"Then prove your innocence. If you're really not the killer, then I'm sure you can find some kind of argument to convince us." Kogi crosses his arms.

"I swear it's like no one's ever heard of the burden of proof…" Michio mumbles.

Well then, things got out of control pretty much immediately. This issue was probably inevitable, but Shizu wishes it hadn't come up so soon. There's very little chance that Michio actually did it, considering what he's told everyone. However, coming up with physical proof may be tricky. She's going to have to think outside the box for this one.


Nonstop Debate Start

Kogi: Michio's story is clearly suspicious. How do we know he isn't lying?

Michio: Come on. If I was really the culprit, why would I have told such a suspicious lie?

Kazuha: Yeah? Wouldn't he have said something more believable?

Michio: Exactly! I'd think I could come up with a better cover story than literally nothing!

Soraru: Well, maybe you're just incredibly stupid!

Pal: …Please do not say… such harsh things.

Fumika: Michio's our only source for the autopsy. We'd be fools to blindly trust him.

Kogi: As long as he can't prove that he couldn't have done it, we can't trust a word he's saying.

Hachi: This kind of feels like bullying…

Shizu: I think I have an argument here… Just have to hope that it's actually valid.

Body Discovery (Takumi)

can't prove that he couldn't have done it

BREAK


Shizu cuts into their discussion. "You're being too hasty there, Kogi."

He rolls his eyes. "That's a nice accusation, but I'd prefer the actual proof if you wouldn't mind."

"Of course. Do you remember who found Takumi's body first?" She proposes this question to everyone rather than just Michio's main accuser.

"It was Sawako, Hachi, and Michio," Morgan provides. "May I please ask where you are going with this? I can tell that Michio being among the first to find his body is important to you, but I fail to see how."

"Don't tell me you think he's innocent just because he was the first one there," Chouki accuses.

Pal mulls this over. "That might put a bit more… suspicion on him… simply by being there first. But still… I do not think that… this is a strong enough… explanation… especially not for someone… so well versed in crime scenes."

"At least in crime dramas, people who discover the body first are among the most suspicious. I don't think many people in this situation would deliberately place themselves at the scene of the crime," Michio states. "But this is real life, and, as much as I'd love to prove myself innocent, I don't think that's quite going to cut. Thank you though, Shizu."

Shizu adjusts her glasses. "You've all misunderstood my point."

"Huh? There's more?" Hachi puffs out her cheeks as she thinks. "Hmm…"

Blinking several times in quick succession, Joshua asks, "You're uh… not bluffing, right?"

"Do I look like a lawyer?" she retorts.

"Not really, but, if you swapped out your blazer for a leather jacket, you'd kinda look like someone who plays poker," Soraru offers.

Sawako slams her fist onto her podium. "We're getting off track. Shizu, if you have evidence, please present it at this time."

"Of course." Shizu looks over her notepad one last time, just to make sure she's not about to say something really stupid. If she's right, there should be something in here that shows why Michio discovering Takumi's body presents an issue.


Rules


"If you all remember from earlier today, we got a few new rules. Specifically, I'm interested in Rule 7." She holds up her notes to her face in order to show that she's reading off of them. "A body discovery announcement plays once three people discover a body for the first time, which signals the start of a trial."

Samia raises an eyebrow. "Yes, we already established that they discovered the body. Is there something more to this?"

"Think about the wording of the rule," she explains. "If I transcribed the rule accurately enough, it means that, in order for the body discovery announcement to play, people need to discover the body. However, if Michio really was the killer, he wouldn't have discovered anything. He would have already known that the body was there in the first place."

"That's… kind of a strange argument…" Kazuha plays with the brim of her cap uneasily.

Joshua coughs awkwardly. "Yeah, that's more technical than an actual problem. Are you seriously debating words and sentence structure right now?"

"If you all don't believe me, then why not ask Monokuma? He's the one who established the rule. I don't think that it would be unfair to ask for a bit more clarification." Having said this, Shizu fixes her gaze at the bear sitting high above them. "Well, I trust you've been paying attention. That's what a good judge would do, after all."

He merely grins at her before sitting up a little straighter. "Of course I am. How can I be an impartial judge if I'm not paying attention to what everyone's saying? Do you really think so little of me?" When he sees that she's not going to answer, he laughs. "Well, to answer your question, the body discovery announcement wasn't meant to be used as evidence. It's a way to alert everyone that a class trial is about to start. If the culprit hides the body and then pretends to discover it later, I'm not about to give them away that easily."

"So, there's nothing that we can derive from it?" Shizu asks, not daring to show her disappointment.

"Well, normally, I'd say no. However, it's very like the Ultimate Strategist to try and turn anything into her advantage." Then, Monokuma shrugs. "But you sounded so sure of yourself, and I'd hate to disappoint you after you thought you made a breakthrough. Just this once, I'll give you a little help for thinking outside of the box."

As Pal sways slightly in place, he asks, "So, you are saying… that Michio is innocent?"

"That's right!" Monokuma confirms. "In this particular case, none of the people who discovered the body are responsible for the crime. So cross those chumps off your suspect list."

"You're giving that away this easily?"Fumika sounds really suspicious of this supposed boon. Shizu can't blame her either. That's almost a fifth of the suspects down with almost no effort.

Kicking his feet back onto the desk and leaning back in his chair, Monokuma responds, "Oh, did you want more mysteries? In that case, blame the strategist over there for spoiling everything. It's not my fault she's so persuasive."

"Let's just move on before he changes his mind," Kaixi says nervously, tugging on his backpack straps.

Sawako gives him a look. "I don't think that he can do that at this point. The information is already out in the open…"

Shizu decides to bring everyone back to the topic at hand. Clearing her throat, she states, "So, I hope that is proof enough for all of you. We should be able to trust Michio's results now that we've shown that he's innocent."

Kogi nods. "Fine by me."

Joshua looks a little taken aback. "Wait, you're giving up that easily?"

"I thought Michio was suspicious, but he's not the culprit. What more do you want from me?" he responds dully.

"Uh… I guess that's fine." Joshua scratches the back of his neck and a few drops of water flick on in the process. "I just was kinda expecting a bit more of a fight? Maybe? I mean, you were the one going all ham on the accusations and stuff."

Michio looks taken aback. "Dude, I just got declared innocent by the one person who knows exactly what's going on at all times. What more do you want from me?"

"There is little point to pursuing a fruitless path," Morgan claims. "For now, we know that Michio is not the one we are seeking, as well as Sawako and Hachi. Instead, we should focus our efforts elsewhere. Perhaps it would be wise to find out the true cause of death."

Soraru scratches xer head with both of xer hands and looks annoyed. "You say that like it's super simple, but death man couldn't even figure it out, and he's got super death knowledge."

"Takumi didn't have any other external wounds either. Whatever killed him must not have left any other marks." Michio elaborates.

Fumika takes the chance to propose a different line of thinking. "Then, let's think about what Takumi was doing at the time of his death. Due to the setup, it's likely that he was eating at the time. That may have caused him to get distracted, even if he was incredibly paranoid of everything."

Kazuha's eyes widen. "Oh! Maybe it was something he was eating. Maybe that's what killed him!"

"There is an infirmary here," Tsubame continues. "Perhaps they found something there that could do the job."

Looking down at the center of the podium circle darkly, Samia speaks up. "There was some poison stored in there. And someone definitely moved it around, so there's a definite possibility that it was used."

"Poison?!" Hachi shrieks.

"That might very well be the case… If it fits that well, then that has to be it," Kaixi claims as he snaps his fingers.

Shizu's not too sure about that. Poison would be a good way to not leave a bunch of evidence, but something about that feels like it's wrong. Maybe she'll get a better feel for things once she hears some of the discussion.


Nonstop Debate Start

Michio: Like I've already said, we know that Takumi wasn't killed by the blow to the back of his head. So it has to be something else.

Sawako: He had no other external injuries, correct? Then, it's impossible that another physical injurykilled him.

Tsubame: Then, the murder method is something that can't be seen?

Samia: There's poison in the infirmary. It's possible that that's what did him in.

Hachi: Huh? Is that a new addition? I didn't see any when I looked…

Samia: I thought it was dangerous, so I hid it so that nobody would find it.

Chouki: Well, you should have hid it better.

Morgan: With that poison, it is incredibly likely that he consumed it while he was eating breakfast. There would have been little warning.

Joshua: Poison wouldn't have left any evidence either, so that sounds about right.

Kaixi: Poison, huh? What a brutal way to go… He probably didn't even realize until it was too late…

Michio: Dying's rarely pleasant, even when it isn't bloody.

Shizu: Hold on a second… I think I've found something that doesn't add up. Just need to check things over again to make sure.

Poison Details

wouldn't have left any evidence

BREAK


"You're wrong, Joshua. Just because poison doesn't leave any bruises or cuts doesn't mean that it doesn't leave any kind of scars whatsoever." Shizu fixes him with a dull glare.

He holds up his hands. "Whoa, what are you talking about? It's poison. What, is it cutting you up on the inside or something? Is it like a bunch of tiny knives that you've ingested?"

"In a sense." At the look on everyone's faces, she decides to just move on with her explanation. "The warning bottle on the poison mentions that anyone who ingests it will be left with a lot of blood clots on their body. I would hardly call that no evidence."

"Hmm?" Sawako looks puzzled. "But, when I looked at Takumi's body, I didn't see anything on his boy. They would have appeared all over, but everywhere that I could see was completely bare, even his face."

"Big deal." Waving off the issue like it's nothing, Soraru says, "The culprit could have just washed off the bloody spots once they saw them. No big deal."

Giving a condescending look and pinching one of his temples, Michio says, "You really don't know how blood clots work, do you?"

Xe winks. "I'll have you know that I'm an extreme blood clot expert. The only reason I'm not the Ultimate Blood Clot Expert is because my baking's also pretty good."

He rolls his eyes. "Right. Okay then. In that case, I'm sure that you're aware that blood clots are caused by blood vessels bursting and the blood leaking out everywhere. However, it's not like your skin is what's actually being cut, so there's no place for it to escape. The blood just boils up underneath, leaving these sickly looking spots all over your body. That's what the poison would be doing. There's no way to just wipe those away since there isn't anything on the outer layer of skin." He leans backwards as he finishes speaking and examines the back of his hand casually. "But I'm sure you already knew all of that, so sorry for boring you."

Soraru simply smiles at this, no looking perturbed in the least. "It's no trouble. I enjoy hearing about things I already know. Now, everyone knows how dumb it would be if someone thought that the culprit could hide the evidence of poison."

"But didn't you just-" Kaixi begins.

Joshua holds up his hand. "Nah, it's not worth it man. Just let it go."

"Nah, you shouldn't hold anything back anymore." Soraru holds up a fist triumphantly. "If we don't talk about everything, then we'll definitely forget something."

"Like you already have… or are at least… pretending to," Pal says quietly. "But enough… about that. If this is true… then there is no way that… Takumi was poisoned."

Shizu nods firmly. "I'm fairly certain that we can safely assume that he wasn't killed by eating anything."

"Your voice is in discord!"

She swears she hears her train of thought physical shatter as Morgan's voice throws her off guard. She moves to fix her glasses as she glares back at the fortune teller. "Excuse me? Did you want to say something, or did you just want to yell at me?"

Morgan giggles. "Oh Shizu… You're still being very hasty, you know. I have not even begun my argument, and you're already trying to doubt me. It would suit you well to take a few moments to calm yourself down."

"It would suit you well to explain yourself before I start ignoring you for wasting my time," she growls.

"Oh my." Holding a hand up to her mouth, Morgan feigns a gasp. "In that case, I should get on with it." She raises a finger in the air, her rings sparkling and her bracelets swaying as her arm moves. "You claim that Takumi did not die because of something that he ate. However, the spirits take issue with that statement, and I cannot ignore their voices."

Shizu accepts her challenge. "Then, I'll show you how wrong your "spirits" are." It's not like she's claiming this in a void. She's put a lot of thought into all of her arguments, so this shouldn't be too hard to overthrow. Still, it's definitely disruptive. How annoying.


Rebuttal Showdown Start

Morgan: I'll admit that it's impossible for poison to have killed Takumi.

Morgan: The fact that his boy is completely clear of blood clots shows this to be true.

Morgan: However, it is hasty to declare the food as completely safe.

Morgan: He died face down next to his bowl of cereal.

Morgan: Is it not reasonable to assume that there could still be foul play involved?

Morgan: Or are you assuming that the poison in the infirmary is the only way to kill someone?

Advance

Shizu: That isn't it at all!

Shizu: There may be other ways to kill people with food other than strictly using poison.

Shizu: However, you haven't exactly been forthcoming with any alternative poisons that could have been used.

Shizu: In the end, I highly doubt that the food itself is to blame.

Morgan: Hold on. You are moving much too quickly for the strength of your reasoning.

Morgan: I hope your imagination isn't quite so lacking that you can't imagine any other ways to kill someone.

Morgan: Have you truly never heard of an overdose before?

Morgan: I'm sure the infirmary has plenty of medicines that are unsafe in large doses.

Morgan: The cleaning supplies in the pantry could also play a role in his death.

Morgan: All the culprit would have had to do is poison his breakfast sometime prior to his death.

Morgan: In that case, it need not be Takumi explicitly.

Morgan: Anyone could have been targeted, and he merely drew an unlucky lot.

Shizu: In theory, this all makes sense, but I think I see the flaw in her reasoning. All that I have to do is think back to a few days ago, and the truth should become apparent.

Character Profiles (Takumi)

poison his breakfast

BREAK


Smirking, Shizu pushes up her glasses. "I wouldn't claim that I'm rushing through things when your own argument has a gaping hole in it."

Morgan doesn't rise to her taunt, choosing instead to keep her calm smile steady. "I suppose that could be true, but I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you're saying. What part exactly sounded strange to you? Was it about how they weren't going for Takumi directly?"

She shakes her head. "I found that to be wrong as well, but there's a more pressing issue at hand. All they would have to do to kill Takumi is poison his breakfast. That's what you were claiming, correct?"

"Yes, that is, in essence, my way of thinking," Morgan confirms.

"Well then," she takes a deep breath before continuing her verbal train of thought. "I'm afraid that you don't know Takumi very well at all. If you think that anyone would be able to poison someone as paranoid as him, then I'm afraid that you're very mistaken."

"Hold on a second there." Michio is the first person to get in the middle of their argument. Now that Shizu is looking around, everyone else seems a bit nervous, or perhaps a little wary, of what just went down. That's what she gets for getting all fired up. "Yeah, I know that Takumi was paranoid, but he still needs to eat. Are you trying to say that he died of starvation and then someone just happened to come along and set up the crime scene randomly?"

"No, that's not it at all." She elaborates a little more. "What I'm saying is that there's something very suspicious about the crime scene that I'm only just now noticing after considering things for a while. Given Takumi's character, there's something that doesn't make sense."


Takumi's Cereal


"Think again about what he was eating," she says, hoping that someone else actually picks up on what she's thinking about.

Hachi clicks her tongue. "Uh… I'm pretty sure he had cereal with milk… I wasn't really paying too much attention though." She stares down at the floor meekly and presses her index fingers together.

"H-hey, it's alright Hachi!" Kaixi interjects. "We were all a little distracted, y'know?"

"Is there something weird about cereal with milk or something?" Joshua looks confused. "Was he lactose intolerant maybe?"

Chouki mumbles quietly, "He could have been a vegan."

Alas, it appears she may be alone on at this juncture. "The choice of food is not the issue. Well, not entirely. If you all think back, the box of cereal that we assumed that he used was sitting out on the table."

"The fatal box!" Soraru shouts suddenly. "It was right in front of us all along!"

Shizu spins her pen around her fingers. "Not so, because Takumi never used that box at all."

"What? How can you be so certain of that?" Fumika asks as she narrows her eyes.

"Like I mentioned previously, Takumi was incredibly paranoid, especially when it concerned food. He ate at irregular hours, and the actual choices in his diet were very strange indeed. He refused to eat anything that had already been opened precisely because it could have been poisoned. Whenever he chose to get something to eat, he got a completely new box or item. If someone else had eaten from it previously, he wouldn't use it."

"That is… a little over the top," Pal muses thoughtfully. "He would truly waste… all of that food… in an effort to keep himself safe?"

Kaixi's eyes widen. "Oh, wait a second! I could have sworn that the box on the table was already half-empty. Does that mean that is was opened already?"

"That was my guess as well," Shizu agrees. "Whatever your feelings are about Takumi's strange habits, it seems bizarre that he would not stick to them in his most paranoid moments. It's likely that someone else placed that box there after killing him. He never even touched any of that food."

Soraru says, "Well, unless he was super hungry and ate half of the box in one sitting. Just inhaling cereal like a starved vacuum cleaner! …Nah, now that I think about it, there's no way that Takumi was cool enough to do something like that."

"What does that mean though? If he didn't eat, why was he getting ready to eat?" Kazuha leans on her podium and scratches her head. "Are you sure that this is right?"

"Nope, not at all."

Once more, Kogi has chosen to say something incredibly controversial. Well, incredibly controversial to Shizu, at least. She looks slightly to the side of him. "You take issue with my statement." It's not a question.

He shrugs. "It's an interesting theory, but there's a problem, and it's the same problem I brought up previously. How do we know that you're telling the truth? Has anyone seen Takumi opening up a new box of cereal every single day?"

Sawako looks troubled. "I believe that Shizu mentioned this to me a few days ago, but I did not witness it myself. At that time, I was in the freezer getting my own breakfast. I do not know if there was anyone else awake early enough to catch Takumi preparing his breakfast."

"That's about what I expected." Kogi clicks his tongue and falls silent.

There are a few murmurs of unease spreading throughout the trial grounds. Shizu feels a bead of sweat start to form and make its way down her neck. This isn't good at all. She'd better deal with this before things get out of hand. "You are formally accusing me."

"Yep." He pops the "p" at the end of his sentence.

Kaixi's teeth are chattering. "W-we're back to suspecting people already? I really d-don't like this."

"Yeah!" Hachi chimes in. "Shizu's been nothing but helpful this entire time. I'm totally sure that she's not lying this time. O-or any other time today!"

"However, she's kind of been leading us around for this entire trial," Fumika points out. "Every time we start to come to a conclusion, she jumps in and pulls the rug out from under our feet. It's almost like she's directing us."

Michio argues in favor of her. "Come on everyone. She was the main person who proved three of us innocent. Plus, she argued in favor of my autopsy when everyone else doubted it. If she was really the killer, why would she do all of that?"

"Maybe it's part of her strategy. Make us all trust her and then pull her final trick." Chouki pouts as he finishes speaking.

Pal fixes his gaze upon his friend once more. "Chouki… you are making her out to be… a predator… rather than a guiding hand."

"She is the Ultimate Strategist." The words roll off of Samia's tongue like they're something disgusting, but she continues too quickly for Shizu to process this fully. "While she's not someone who can pull impossible gambits, I can definitely see her coming up with a really complex plan to fool all of us."

"The spirits think that she is someone to watch out for." Now, Morgan has apparently decided to join in on the Shizu suspicion train, though this statement is puzzling when she then chooses to say, "However, this seems like an odd point for her to trip. Surely, she would have thought twice about saying an unverifiable statement before committing to her plan. I find this an odd point to suspect her."

At this point, Kaixi's agreement is to be expected. "Y-yeah! Shizu's really smart. She wouldn't lose to something so obvious!"

"…I appreciate the thought, but please word your defenses better," Shizu groans.

"Eh heh… Sorry?" He pulls on his cap in an embarrassed manner.

Kogi shakes his head solemnly. "That's not right. This isn't the first time she's tried to get us to believe something really strange. Literally the first thing she did was make us question the cause of death."

"Huh? I'm a little lost… What did Shizu have to do with that?" Kazuha inquires cautiously.

"Yeah!" Michio adds. "I was the one who did the autopsy, not her. And we've already shown that I can't be the killer. Just because she was the person who brought it up first doesn't mean that she was the one responsible for the autopsy. Hell, I think I'm the only person here who could do it competently! …Well, maybe Samia could, but it's literally my talent. Don't go throwing the blame onto Shizu for this one."

After considering these words for a few moments, Kogi then states, very slowly. "Tell me… Who was the person who got you the coroner's kit in the first place?"

There's a brief moment of silence. Then, Michio looks at her with a guilty expression and says plainly, "…Shizu was."

Kazuha instantly flinches backwards. "W-wait! Are you saying that she could have tampered with the kit before she brought it over?"

"That's not possible!" Sawako shouts. "She barely had any time between talking with Michio and bringing it to him. When would she have had the chance to mess with things?"

"Plus, she handed it off to me during that period," says Kaixi hurriedly. "That gives her even less time."

There's a sinking feeling in her stomach when Samia raises her voice. "Not if she planned this in advance."

Tsubame frantically tugs on her braid. "Could you please explain that in more detail?"

"When Shizu first got to the infirmary, she asked me to do something strange." Samia closes her eyes and recounts her memories to everyone. "She told me not to tell anyone that there were coroner's kits in there. In addition, she said that both of us should hold onto kits of our own in case someone was to tamper with them. But, during the investigation, she was the one who picked out the kit. If she was the culprit, she could have changed things in advance to coincide with her plan."

"This is completely ridiculous." Shizu clenches her fist in frustration. "This plan you're cooking up has far too many moving parts. The best strategies are the ones that have the least variables. Yet, somehow, I've somehow managed to get everything working without fail, including fooling the coroner about the cause of death, until this exact moment."

Soraru whistles. "Man, that is impressive. Nice going there, Shizu! You almost had us."

"Shut up," she hisses.

"Eeep!" Xe ducks down and hides underneath xer hands. "Help! Help! She's trying to silence me!"

"We should let… everyone discuss equally…" Pal lectures her sternly.

She facepalms. "Now's not the time for non-sequiturs, Pal."

"You're right. Now is the time for you to explain yourself." Samia crosses her arms. "You told me yourself that you don't have anyone to verify your alibi. Do you have any other ways to pull yourself out of trouble?"

Fumika taps her foot and sighs. "Yeah, that's actually something else I found kind of suspicious as well. She's been a little too cooperative with Monokuma recently."

Looking a little torn, Kazuha eventually mumbles. "…Oh… That's right. She got him to add a new rule, and she made him clarify some stuff that we weren't sure about… But still…"

"But nothing," Chouki spits. "She could have been pestering him about the rules behind all of our backs for a while now. She could have totally been privy to the fact that a trial was coming up!"

"That's just baseless speculation!" she shoots back, but the damage has been done. The mutterings around the room are getting stronger. Damn it.

"That would make a little bit of sense…" Tsubame whispers, her face incredibly pale. "I did find something a little off when we were talking about the body discovery announcement…"

"That's right. Shizu always wakes up first." The guilt is creeping into Sawako's eyes, and she can't seem to force herself to look directly at Shizu. "Yet, she was nowhere to be found this morning until after the body discovery announcement played."

"She could have gone down there at the usual time, committed the crime, and then cleaned up all of the evidence that she was there, huh?" Joshua flashes a nervous grin in her direction.

"Hmm… How unfortunate." If Morgan is attempting to placate her, she's doing a really terrible job. "It appears that everything is unraveling at the seams. How will you untangle yourself from this mess?"

"S-Shizu… You have some kind of explanation, right?" The pleading look on Kaixi's face does little to make her feel better.

Shizu forces herself to glare down at her podium, not daring to meet anyone's eyes directly. Now isn't the time to think about what could go wrong. She needs to focus and find some point to attack before they all choose to vote for her. Her silence definitely isn't helping her case. There's no pleading the fifth in this courtroom. Still, she has no other options. As she waits for them to continue, she feels the combined gaze of the room slowly begin to melt her.


Nonstop Debate Start

Hachi: There's no way that Shizu is the culprit!

Kogi: That's funny, because she's been leading us around this entire time. All of our previous discussions were tainted by her influence.

Pal: It feels unfair but… she did shoot down… a lot of things… that appeared to be obvious.

Samia: It's not just that she's been saying some suspicious things. Her alibi's shaky as well.

Fumika: Not to mention that she should have been the one to discover the body, but she was nowhere to be found.

Soraru: Ooh! I bet she snuck down there really early to set up the scene! Like a viper waiting the strike.

Samia: She had the chance to set up everything and then leave without a trace.

Sawako: Shizu even had the chance to conspire with Monokuma to learn about the trial and everything else before the rest of us had the opportunity to.

Kazuha: All of this requires a lot of planning, but she is the Ultimate Strategist… If anyone could pull something like this off, it would be her… Ugh…

Joshua: She had the time, the skill, and the opportunity to plan all of this out, huh? Talk about the ultimate crime…

Hachi: Come on, Shizu! Why are you being so quiet? Say something!

Michio: She might not have a lot of room to argue…

Shizu: There are so many holes in this line of reasoning that I don't know where to begin. But, like a conspiracy theory, each part is supported by several other equally unsupported parts. If I want to survive, I'm going to have to destroy the most concrete weak point.

Cake Traps

leave without a trace

BREAK


At long last, Shizu looks up and opens her eyes. "…If I truly was the culprit, then I would have made a very big mistake in the preparation of my crime. Specifically, I would have left a very huge piece of evidence that I was there."

Chouki crosses his arms. "There wasn't that much at the crime scene besides Takumi's body. Is that what you're talking about?"

Soraru makes a choking sound and pales considerably. "No way… You… you were gonna try and dispose of the body?!"

"No!" Shizu shouts as she feels a vein popping in her forehead. "I'm not talking about the crime scene specifically. I meant in general. Remember? In the elevator lobby?"

Eyes widening, Tsubame says, "The cakes…"

"That is correct…" Pal agrees, equally surprised. "The cake leaves… irrefutable proof… that you came down… through the elevator."

"Oh yeah! If she wanted to hide the fact that she had been there, she'd have cleaned up the cakey mess! That's, like, super proof that she'd been there before." Hachi looks incredibly relieved to see that Shizu's argument holds water.

Shizu goes a bit further than that even. "In addition to this, some of you should have found a few spare cake crumbs in the elevator and on the fourth floor."

"Oh, was that what that was? Yeah, I remember that." Michio gives her a thumbs-up. "So, that was you, huh?"

She ignores Soraru's snicker in the background. "That's right. However, do any of you remember seeing a similar trail on the second floor leading to the dining hall?" When no one speaks up, she continues. "Of course you don't. That means that, if I really were the culprit, I would have taken the time to clean up the part of the mess while leaving the rest of it for no good reason. Why would I have done that?"

"Maybe your original plan was to say that Takumi got hit by the cake," Chouki assets. "It's not like he's alive to contradict you or something."

"That's not possible." Surprisingly, it's Kogi that's coming to her defense. "I stated a pretty in-depth theory about Takumi being the one to trigger the trap, but she quickly shot it down. She would have just gone with that if she wanted to hide her involvement."

"Yeah, this is really unlikely. I knew she couldn't have done it!" Kaixi cheers.

Fumika looks a little embarrassed. "Truth be told, this is a lot of ifs to swallow… We're technically not sure about any of this. This last issue only further compounds things. I apologize, Shizu."

"It's fine." Despite her claims, Shizu is actually quite relieved to see the tides turning so quickly. "As long as we're all clear that I'm not the culprit, then any clarification is fine."

"Stop spreading your lies!"

Once more, Shizu reels back as Samia decides that now is the perfect time to bring up some issues. Shizu groans and pinches her forehead. "Oh, what now?"

"Really? Is that all you have to say?" Samia looks at her incredulously. "I'm about to bring up another issue, and you're already dismissing me? That's not a good look for you."

Clenching her fist, she asserts, "There is literally no chance that I'm the culprit. Like Fumika just said, the entire foundation for this line of reasoning is flawed. Even if you bring up some kind of circumstantial issue, the base is already shaking and crumbling. We're wasting our time with this."

Samia is gaping openly at her. When she finally regains the ability to speak, she does not sound happy. "That's not for you to decide. Trying to dismiss my concerns before you even hear them… I literally cannot believe that you of all people are the one suggesting that. You want to get this over with? Fine, then listen closely so you don't get lost in your own arrogance."

Shizu grits her teeth. She's not about to fall before some sort of petty argument like this. It's definitely unhealthy to be getting this worked up, but she feels like she's deserved it at this point. She shouldn't tell Samia that, though. Better just get this mess out of the way quickly.


Rebuttal Showdown Start

Samia: Your defense lies on the fact that you tripped the cake traps.

Samia: I'll admit that cleaning up after yourself would have taken a lot of time.

Samia: But that's a huge if!

Samia: What if you didn't have to clean up any of the mess near the dining hall at all?

Samia: It's possible that you never triggered the trap at all after you exited the elevator.

Samia: If the mess never got there, then the conflict disappears.

Advance

Shizu: Are you seriously telling me that I didn't actually trigger the trap?

Shizu: There's already proof that I did.

Shizu: The mess that was left behind should be more than enough.

Shizu: What are you actually getting at?

Samia: I know that you triggered the trap at some point, I'm not denying that.

Samia: But there's no proof that to say when you set it off.

Samia: The wire may be transparent, but you're the type of person who notices little details.

Samia: I think that you noticed it as you were exiting the elevator to kill Takumi, and then you decided to incorporate it into your plan.

Samia: You deliberately set it off after you killed him!

Advance

Shizu: Why on would I ever do something like that?

Shizu: That would place me near the scene of the crime for certain.

Shizu: Not to mention, I would also be forced to change my clothes afterwards.

Shizu: It's not worth the risk!

Samia: But it kills two birds with one stone.

Samia: Takumi's body was very bloody, and it's likely that the culprit got some blood on them while attacking him.

Samia: They'd definitely have to change out of their clothes if that was the case.

Samia: By intentionally getting hit by the cake, they'd give themselves a reason to wash off the bloodstains.

Samia: You washed your clothes in order to hide your crime!

Shizu: Finally, an opening… This should end this speculation once and for all!

Sheets in the Washing Machines

washed your clothes

BREAK


Adjusting her glasses decisively, Shizu smirks. "I suppose I should applaud you on having a somewhat in-depth argument in play there, but you shouldn't claim anything when there's an obvious piece of evidence that contradicts your whole argument."

Apparently, this was the exact wrong thing to say because Samia looks even more frustrated. "You… Just tell me what the evidence is, and leave the patronizing stuff behind… I swear, arguments bring out the worst side of you."

"It's true I might have been able to force a reason to wash my clothes. I very well couldn't do so without warning if I was the culprit, as several people already know that I just did laundry a few days ago. However, the washing machines were already in use this morning." Shizu shakes her head. "It's impossible that I could have washed any of my stuff while that was happening."

"Well, you know that now, but you might not have known that at the time," Fumika points out. "You could have gone through with the plan only to come to that roadblock later."

Surprisingly, Morgan comes to her defense. "However, that is not what happened at all. I was in the laundry room before Shizu had the opportunity to wash her clothes. I made sure to examine them, but there was no evidence of any bloodstains on them. They were only coated in the remnants of cake."

"Maybe the cake was a red herring, and she used whatever was in the washing machines to block the blood splatter," Chouki accuses.

Shizu stares in disbelief. "You're telling me that I brought a bunch of sheets down from the fourth floor in order to commit my crime before I was even aware that the trap was going to be there, managed to avoid it on my first trip, and still decided to set it off afterwards? Are you even listening to yourself?"

Soraru's eyes flash. "You could have been the one to set up the traps in the first place though."

Literally everyone in the room, including Monokuma, turns to look at xem. Even just a cursory glance at everyone's faces shows that there isn't a single person in the room that believes xem. Somehow, throughout all of this, xe keeps a perfectly innocent smile on xer face. "Huh? Huh? What's with the funny looks?"

"You're uh… kind of not fooling anyone," Kazuha says awkwardly.

Pal tell xem, "It is… abundantly clear… that you were the one… behind the setup."

"What? Little old me?" Soraru gasps and leans backwards in mock surprise. "How could you accuse me of such a thing?"

"You're literally been pranking everyone every day now," Michio retorts.

Shrugging, xe puffs out xer cheeks. "Pffft, that's just someone exploiting pattern recognition."

Shizu glares at xem. "Your cakes were essential to the plan. And don't even try to claim they're not yours. I saw you baking them."

"Someone's clearly trying to frame me!" xe declares.

Joshua facepalms. "Dude, I literally brought them to your room last night."

Upon hearing this, xe points at him dramatically. "Aha! The culprit admits his guilt! You can't pull the wool over our eyes!"

"You asked me to bring them to you!" he yells back, though it looks like he's trying to stifle his laughter.

At this point, even Soraru sees that xer words aren't working. Deciding to give up the charade, xe sighs and lessens xer smile. "Aw man… I can't believe you all called me out on it. I thought I was going to get away with it because nobody was bringing it up."

Kaixi pulls his cap down slightly and mumbles, "I think that was just because it was so obvious…"

Shaking her head at all of the nonsense going on, Tsubame tries to bring things to a more helpful place. "Well, while we're on the subject, could you please tell us the entire setup behind this scheme? I know it may not be directly linked to the case at hand, but it might lead to some helpful clues."

"Also, I would appreciate it if you would tell me what you actually did last night." Shizu is already furiously scribbling out sections she wrote for Soraru's alibi.

Xe winks. "Sure thing. If you really wanna know that badly, I guess I gotta explain. Can't disappoint my fans, after all."

"…Fans?" Tilting her head, Sawako looks a little annoyed.

"It took a lot of the night to set all of that up. I didn't wanna be caught by anyone mid-preparation, so I had to get up at, like, 3 AM to do everything. And even then, it took a lot of time to get everything working properly. As it turns out, putting things in high places is tough when you need to drag a ladder back and forth."

"So, you stayed up that late just for a dumb prank?" Michio asks.

"Hey, it's not dumb!" Xe puts on a dignified accent. "I'll have you know that my pranks are only of the highest, most sophisticated quality." Then, xe drops it to say, "There was a lot of thought I had to put into it. Like I needed to make sure the boards actually dropped in the right way to make the cakes fall how I wanted them too. Plus, I needed to actually put them on the metal dishes so that they would actually slide. Good thing Joshua brought those out as well."

"Joshua?" Samia clicks her tongue. "Oh, that's right. He just mentioned that earlier. He's the one who brought the cakes to you, right?"

"Yup!" xe confirms. "He came to my door crying sometime last night, and I felt so bad for him that I sent him on a magical journey to get me the stuff I was too lazy to fetch myself. Gotta keep those cakes in mint condition for as long as possible."

"I wanted to check in on xem, and xe asked me to do a small favor for xem," Joshua clarifies. "I only cried a little bit."

Sawako decides to check something. "So, were you in on the prank as well?"

Soraru shakes xer head rapidly. "No way! I don't spoil any of my pranks. I don't want anything to get leaked out at all. All he would have known is that I wanted some cakes. My methods are discreet and mysterious!"

Joshua does a little fifty-fifty hand motion. "I mean, I didn't know what xe was planning, but I was pretty sure something was going down. Uh, kind of literally too… I was pretty sure xe was going to hit someone with those cakes. I had no idea that where they were setting up shop, though."

"But you were aware that Soraru was going to prank someone," Morgan says.

"Oh, yeah, totally." He scratches the back of his neck nervously. "Truth be told, I uh… kind of decided to maybe extend it a little?"

"Huh? Extend it?" Hachi puffs out her cheeks.

He nods. "Yeah. I kind of thought that someone was going to get hit, but it was pretty late, so it would probably happen in the morning. So, I stayed up really late and, around 6:40 AM or so, I shoved my sheets into the washing machines so that whoever got hit would have to wait to wash their stuff. Just a little minor thing."

"You!" Shizu points at him furiously. "You're the one who did that."

"Oops?" He can't help but smile. It looks incredibly guilty, but that's not all that comforting in the moment.

Soraru bursts out laughing. "Oh man, this is great! I totally wanted to get Takumi with that one, but I'll settle for a Shizu. Too bad my final apology never made it…"

"You set up this entire thing just to get Takumi?" Kazuha looks a little troubled. "I don't really think that would be a suitable apology, though…"

"I generally find that pranking someone is not a good way to apologize for pranking someone," Chouki deadpans.

Xe winks and does finger guns in his direction. "Not with that attitude."

"We've gotten off topic." As angry as this whole situation made her, Shizu thinks that they've gotten all that they could have out of this discussion. She makes a few adjustments to her notes before she forces everyone to move on.

Sheets in the Washing Machines (Updated) - Joshua put sets of sheets into the washing machine early this morning, around 6:40 AM. I found this out around 8:30 AM when I went to do my own laundry. At this time, they had twenty minutes left in their cycle.

Soraru's Account – Soraru set up the cake prank at around 3 AM. Xe was the only person who knew all of the details, such as where it was set up and what was going to happen. Though Joshua got the cakes for xem, he was not actively aware of these finer details, only able to speculate on the nature of the prank.

"Getting back on track, I hope that it's become painfully clear that, at least going by your current speculations, I am not the culprit." She looks around the room, making sure to meet everyone's eyes directly.

"I was already convinced before Samia said anything," Kogi claims casually. "But you did go the extra mile and disprove that as well. I'm satisfied."

Samia crosses her arms. "You don't need to get cross with me just because I had more issues. But, no, despite your tone, you've convinced me of your innocence so far."

"I never doubted you for a second," Kaixi adds.

"Thank you everyone." She bows her head graciously and lets out a little sigh of relief. Thank goodness that's over with. Now, they can actually move forwards.

"Um… I apologize for this, but I cannot exactly remember what we were talking about before we started suspecting Shizu." Tsubame shuffles around in place awkwardly.

Morgan reestablishes their sticking point. "I believe that we were considering the oddities in Michio's autopsy report. Shizu had just claimed that Takumi would not have died by eating anything because of his paranoia. If she is not the culprit, then I see no reason why she would make this up. This means that the cause of death is still a mystery."

"Aw man, seriously?" Soraru pouts. "We've been talking all of this time, but we've still gotten literally nowhere. That dang autopsy report sure loves messing everything up."

"Uh…" Michio looks like he wants to say something but hesitates.

"Is something the matter, Michio?" Sawako leans over and addresses him directly. "Do you take issue with that statement? I hope that this isn't personally insulting to you or anything."

He shakes his head and shoves his hands into his trench coat pockets. "Nah, it's nothing like that. I thought it was strange too. That's why I didn't really want to bring up the other thing…"

"Other… thing? There was… something else… that was strange?" Pal's voice is full of concern at the prospect of more mysteries.

"I meant to bring it up earlier, but we kept getting sidetracked by stuff so I never had the chance to say anything," Michio admits.

Shizu's eyes widen. That's right. There was another thing that was strange about the circumstances surrounding Takumi's death.

What was odd about Michio's autopsy report besides the cause of death?

A. The amount of blood

B. The time of death

C. The fact that he didn't get more out of it


Shizu wants to make sure she's remembering everything correctly. "Michio, you said that Takumi was apparently killed sometime last night, right?"

Michio replies, "Yeah, that's right. His body temperature was too close to room temperature to have been killed this morning. He had to have been sitting there for a while. I can't imagine that he was killed this morning."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Fumika looks exasperated. "All of our theories were based on him dying sometime this morning!"

He holds up his hands. "Hey, I told you that I forgot to bring it up sooner. It's not my fault that we kept going off on different tangents."

"I don't think he could have said anything sooner, though." Sawako scratches her chin. "While we did discuss for a good while, the thing in common was that we doubted the validity of his autopsy report, whether that be because of his own lie or Shizu's meddling. If he had brought the time of death up sooner, then we would have only increased out suspicions."

"And it's not like he had much of a chance to bring it up anyways… We were kind of ravenous for suspects…" Hachi looks a little sick to her stomach.

"But, where exactly does this leave us?" Samia asks everyone. "We're certain about the autopsy now, right? So, do we just accept that we were completely wrong about the time of death?"

Chouki folds his arms. "It did look like he was still eating when he died… Was that part of the culprit's setup as well?"

"According to Shizu's testimony, Takumi would not eat anything unless it was brand new," Kogi muses. "Going off of that, it sounds like the culprit put out that food in order to fool us."

"Did they also move his body into that position?" Tsubame wonders. "If they had enough the time, then he could have been killed anywhere and then put there…"

"They could have had free reign to do whatever they wanted if the crime occurred during nighttime. We would have all been slumbering peacefully." Morgan's words cause a chill to spread out around the room.

"Everyone… please hold on for… just one second." Pal breaks the silence, his distinctive speech pattern laced with concern. "Are we certain that… this crime took place… during the night?"

Michio coughs. "Uh… are we back to doubting my findings already?"

"I do not mean… to be so rude…" Pal bows his head in shame. "However, there is something… that I found rather peculiar… if the crime did take place… much later…"

"Well… you're certainly being a lot more polite about it than some other people. If there really is an issue, we should hear you out." Michio smiles at him patiently.

"Thank you…" Pal replies. "I hope that… I will not waste your time."

If Pal is the one speaking up, then this might be something worth thinking about. He doesn't seem like the type of person to interject, so this could very well be something important.


Nonstop Debate

Michio: I'm confident that my autopsy report was correct. Takumi had to have died sometime last night!

Pal: There is an issue… with that theory… however.

Kazuha: Are you talking about how paranoid he was? Do you think that he might not have come out at all last night?

Kaixi: He was one of the people who split off from out group….

Pal: No… I am concerned with… the blood.

Joshua: …Well that's not ominous at all.

Pal: If he was really killed… last night… then why is the blood… so fresh?

Kaixi: Oh, that's a good point!

Samia: Blood dries out after a while, but it still looked wet to me. Plus, I'm sure that Michio would have said something if it had been dried out.

Michio: No, it was definitely still dripping… That is strange…

Fumika: We already know the culprit tampered with the scene. It's possible that they did something with the blood.

Chouki: What, you think that they added the blood later on?

Fumika: It could have also been something that looked like blood but wasn't.

Kazuha: Or maybe Monokuma kept the blood fresh to go with their cover up?

Pal: Or… the blood is true… and Takumi was killed this morning… as we originally thought…

Shizu: Hmm… There are some concerning points in this discussion, but it looks like people are finally starting to have some interesting ideas. They might need my support, however. I could do well to springboard off of that one in particular…

Plastic Bag

added the blood later on

BREAK


"Chouki might actually be onto something there," Shizu states.

He traces his vein tattoos and pouts. "What do you mean "actually"?"

She ignores his tone. "It's entirely possible that the culprit put the blood at the crime scene sometime this morning. Do you remember that plastic bag that you found in the trash can?"

"What, that piece of trash?" He squints. "Don't tell me that it was actually something incredibly important or whatever. What the hell could it have been?"

"Wait, there was a plastic bag at the scene of the crime?" Samia's eyes light up.

Shizu nods. "That's right. Someone threw it away in the kitchen. I believe that it's linked to the problem that we're having right now."

"Um… what exactly is it though?" Joshua asks. "I mean, a plastic bag could technically be used for a lot of things. Unless there was something in the plastic bag, how would you know what it was?"

"For the record, I don't think there was anything inside," Kazuha clarifies. "Well, there was a bit of water, but I just assumed that it was rinsed out."

"Yeah, it was wet," Chouki confirms. "Still doesn't tell us what it is."

Most people might not have an idea, but Shizu does. From the look on Samia's face, she's got a pretty good idea as well. Thinking about what she's seen these past few days and what would be necessary, there's only really one option.


What the bag that Chouki found?

A. Blood Bag

B. Bag of Red Wine

C. Nothing, it was a decoy


"Samia, do you remember what else was in the infirmary?" Shizu needn't have asked, judging from Samia's previous expressions, but it would be good to immediately back herself up.

She lets out a small breath. "You think that someone took one of the blood bags out of there? That's definitely possible… and it would explain the discrepancy with the time…"

Kazuha holds up a hand to stop them. "Wait, hold up a second. There are blood bags here in the infirmary? Since when?"

"Y-yeah, I don't remember that!" Kaixi agrees nervously. "Then again, I didn't really look around the infirmary that much… Sorry…"

"Since the place has been opened," Samia explains. "Did you all really not take a good look around? Maybe I've just been in there for the past few days so I'm used to staying there, but that feels like an important place to investigate."

Pal scratches his chin with his sharp nails. "I believed that you… had everything under control. I apologize for… leaving all of the work… to you. However, if there truly were blood bags… then I have… no further questions… to raise."

"Wait, there are just bags of blood lying around for anyone to use?" Soraru looks unnerved. "Then someone just… just dumped a bunch of blood on Takumi and called it a day? That's…" Xe shivers and stops talking.

Chouki scoffs. "That sounds like something you would do."

A strangled choking noise emits from Soraru, and xer face contorts in a horrifying manner. Clearly, something troubling is going through xer mind, but xe doesn't appear able to make any sounds that are more coherent.

Shizu, for once, takes pity on xem and moves the discussion forwards. "I hope that it's clear by now that the culprit could have killed Takumi late last night and been able to set up the scene for this morning by using the blood bag and cereal. It was all a ruse in order to make us mistake the time of death."

"Actually, I have a small issue, kind of?" Kaixi holds up his finger and looks around really nervously. "I'm sorry, I know that you're probably right, and my point probably isn't even worth bringing up, and I know you're already annoyed by people interrupting you and-"

"Kaixi… Breathe," Morgan commands him with a serene voice. "I am certain that we would not mind some extra clarification. We can never be too careful when our lives are on the line."

Sawako pounds her fist into her palm. "Morgan is correct. If we leave any stone unturned, we will all face certain doom. No more hesitating. Speak clearly, please, and explain the issue."

"A-alright…" He still looks like a kid who just knocked over the birthday boy's cake, but he continues regardless. "Here g-goes something?"


Nonstop Debate Start

Kaixi: W-well, everything seems pretty sure that the blood bag was used, right? I don't want to ruin everyone's hard work…

Fumika: Just get to the point already.

Kaixi: Okay… It's just… the killer probably would have wanted to have the blood bag on hand right when they were covering up the crime scene, right?

Samia: If they didn't, then they'd have to go to the infirmary and risk being seen.

Kaixi: R-right! So, I was wondering… would they be able to do that?

Michio: Blood needs to be kept cool if you're storing it. Otherwise, it's as good as useless, and I would have noticed that immediately.

Sawako: There are plenty of cool places to store things in the kitchen. What is the issue?

Kaixi: But what would the killer have done if somebody noticed the blood bag? That would be a huge risk!

Pal: Hmm… you do… have a point there.

Tsubame: There's not much room to hide things if you need to a specific temperature requirement.

Michio: Yeah, someone could have found it at any time and alerted everyone.

Kaixi: So my question wasn't dumb then?

Shizu: It's a valid point, but still… There's a pretty obvious flaw in Kaixi's argument.

Milk Cartons

not much room to hide things

BREAK


Shizu stops everyone before the discussion diverts into a useless tangent. "You're wrong, Tsubame. The kitchen has the perfect place to hide something."

"It does? But the freezer is much too cold, and the fridge is so small… Where could you hide something?" Tsubame tugs on her braid, possibly feeling a little dumb.

Shizu gestures in Hachi's direction, deciding to let her take the glory for this one. "Go ahead, Hachi. Tell them what you discovered."

Her eyes sparkle. "Oh! That's right. Someone totally lined up a bunch of the milk cartons in the fridge. You couldn't see past them, and someone could have totally hidden something back there. It was like a wall of milk!"

Kogi raises an eyebrow. "When you say a wall, you mean all side to side, with no gaps in between, right? If so, then that's definitely suspicious."

Kazuha nods. "It kind of looked like that from what I saw… I didn't get a good angle though, so Hachi would probably be better at explaining."

"Yeah, it was super weird," Hachi confirms. "We didn't find anything back there when we looked, but that blood bag could have been there beforehand."

Chouki shakes his head. "I'm still not sure why you're all thinking that this plastic bag has to be the blood bag."

In an attempt to cheer him up, Hachi says, "Aw, don't downplay your own discoveries. Besides, everything's working out really nicely if that was a blood bag!"

"Yeah, but there's no proof that it's not some regular piece of trash," he counters. "We've got no evidence that the culprit's even the one who threw it away. And, at this point, the person who actually threw it out isn't going to say anything because everyone will suspect them."

"No, I think we can safely assume that the culprit was responsible for the plastic bag," Shizu says bluntly.

Chouki calls her out on this. "Prove it then. This better not be a bluff."

She grips her pen tightly. "Of course not." Why would she lie in a situation like this? What kind of person would reach the truth by piling on a bunch of lies? Shaking her head, she checks her notes again, making sure what she's about to say is correct. After all, only the culprit had the chance to leave that evidence behind.


Dining Hall Restrictions


"That plastic bag would not be there if it wasn't thrown out sometime this morning," Shizu declares. "The entire reason behind the dining hall being locked off at night is so that Monokuma can restock and clean everything without being bothered."

"Clean everything?" Sawako mutters. "Then, in that case, the plastic bag would have been thrown out if it was left on the previous day."

"Takumi's body was discovered this morning. Nobody other than the culprit would have had the chance to throw anything away." Fumika's eyes narrow as she thinks this all over.

Grumbling slightly, Chouki says, "That's assuming that Monokuma is telling the truth when he said that."

From high above them, they all hear him yell, "Hey! Don't just claim that I'm a filthy liar! You chumps have no idea how much effort I go through to keep this place nice and clean!"

"Judging by the amount of available washing machines, I would say that we have a very good guess of how much effort you put in." Truly, Morgan's passive-aggressiveness is restrained for no one.

Monokuma growls. "Oh, so you'd rather wallow around in your own filth then? Fine, I can stop cleaning up and let you do all of the hard work yourselves. Oh, and I guess you won't need to use those washing machines either since they're clearly inadequate."

Even Pal sounds exasperated. "Please… don't"

Kazuha kicks the ground nervously. "So… then Shizu's right then? That's what you've been doing all of these days?"

"Aw, there's no need to sound so unsure of things." He gives an evil laugh. "I want to make sure that everyone is comfortable for the horrifying murder game. Otherwise, you'd just all go Lord of the Flies on me within a few days. That's not going to work out at all!"

"You didn't answer the question," Kaixi points out, tugging on the straps of his backpack as he questions their gamemaster.

"So impatient, all of you." Monokuma pouts. "You can't wait for me to answer, you don't like the daily free cleaning services I provide, you keep having to ask me for help in the middle of trials. What more do you want from me?"

"I want to go home." Kogi's voice is emotionless.

He cackles maniacally. "Nope, too bad. All you get is me cleaning up the dining hall and kitchen areas during nighttime. No other luxuries for you! Well, that's not strictly true. I would never interfere with the culprit's plan. If they leave evidence behind, clearly they want you all to find it! So, I don't touch anything they've been handling, as per the rules."

"That should settle it then. Even if that bag was left in the trash earlier, it would still be tied to the culprit." Michio slams his fist on the desk triumphantly. "It was definitely the blood bag then. What else would they have thrown away?"

"Guess I'll rescind my point then," Chouki says, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Never imagine that I'd be the one to find a crucial piece of evidence."

Pal smiles widely at him. "You did… very well, Chouki. You should be… proud of yourself."

"Yeah, you may be the grumpiest of all Gus's, but you're our Grumpy Gus!" Soraru proclaims. "Though you might have to be Trash Grumpy Gus because of your skills at trash digging… Oh well, that's still an enviable title."

"…Fine." Chouki decides not to acknowledge xer comment.

"This should paint a pretty clear picture of what happened," Shizu states. "There's no doubt now that Michio was correct in his assessments."

Raising a fist in the air triumphantly, Michio cheers. "Yeah! Finally, we're done just ignoring all of my hard work. While we still need to figure out the cause of death, that'll be much easier now that we know when Takumi was killed. It was sometime in the middle of the night and tampered with the crime scene later. Maybe, if we go over alibis again, we can start narrowing things down."

"No way, dude!"

Shizu had almost forgotten entirely about Joshua. He had been silent for a really long time. Judging by the look on his face, he's wanted to say this for a while now, but perhaps he kept getting interrupted or ignored. Still, he shrugs and says, "Uh… yeah, about that…"

"What's the matter this time?" she groans.

"Well, everyone else seemed to just accept this once we believed Michio's autopsy, but I'm still kind of confused about one part. Maybe everyone else already knows the answer and I'm being dumb?" He somehow shrugs even harder. "Who knows? The possibilities are endless."

Sighing and adjusting her glasses, she says, "If you explain yourself, then I'm sure we'll see who knows what exactly. I'm guessing this has something to do with when the crime was committed."

"Yeah, I kinda don't see how the cover-up is possible under these circumstances." He clicks his tongue experimentally. "Guess we'll get to see how wrong I am together, huh? This should be fun."

"Fun" is subjective, and Joshua even sounds sarcastic when he says it. If he really had such a burning question, he should have spoken up sooner. That way, he could participate a little more in the previous discussions. Whatever the case, she has to clear this up now, or else Michio's hard work will never be useful.


Rebuttal Showdown Start

Joshua: So, like, I don't really get why everyone's so sure about what happened, y'know?

Joshua: I mean, yeah, someone could have dressed the crime scene up to confuse us.

Joshua: But, I mean… When would they have had the time to do that?

Joshua: They couldn't have done it last night.

Joshua: The blood would've dried and stuff, and the cereal would've been all gross and mushy from being in the milk for so long.

Joshua: They couldn't have done it this morning either.

Joshua: It must have taken, like, at least a little bit of time to move everything into place.

Joshua: There's no way they would've risked being caught red-handed, literally because of all the blood.

Joshua: They never had any chance to do anything!

Advance

Shizu: That's not even remotely true.

Shizu: There was plenty of time this morning for them to set everything up.

Shizu: Nobody would have been able to walk in on them either.

Joshua: Hold up, you're contradicting yourself!

Joshua: Didn't you just say that the dining hall closed during nighttime?

Joshua: Because of the Monokuma symbol, we're not allowed to be inside during that time.

Joshua: Unless you're talking about after 8 AM, then maybe…

Joshua: But that's still not enough time to get everything ready!

Joshua: I'd know that I would be super paranoid about only having thirty minutes to make sure everything's perfect.

Shizu: I see… So that's where the misconception lies. Joshua's almost right, but he's forgotten something important. Actually, it's probably good that he brought this up… This could be very enlightening.

Rules

not allowed to be inside

BREAK


Snapping her fingers, Shizu asserts, "You're wrong about not being allowed in the dining hall, Joshua."

"Uh, what now?" He blinks several times in quick succession. "But… but you literally just said that the dining hall closes off during nighttime. Monokuma cleans everything up in there. There's literally no way for anyone to be inside."

"You've forgotten what the rules state. It's not that nobody is allowed to be in rooms blocked off with a Monokuma symbol on them. It's that we're not allowed to force our way past them," she explains.

He tilts his head. "Wait, really?"

"Monokuma probably worded the rule strangely so that people would just assume that nobody could go into those rooms," Sawako says, putting a hand to her cheek. "He wanted people to make the mistake that you just made."

Fumika continues the explanation. "The dining hall is the only room that you could exploit that loophole with as well. All of the other rooms were either completely off limits or were always available."

"Is that why he locked off the laundry room and the infirmary?" Kaixi wonders. "Was he trying to get us to associate the Monokuma symbols with complete inaccessibility?"

"Perhaps… he was hoping… that the culprit would be… the only one to see through… that ruse," Pal wonders.

"But uh… from the sounds of things," Joshua begins, "I was… um… kind of the only one not to figure it out? So, uh… that's embarrassing."

Soraru laughs it off. "Nah, you can't blame yourself for not thinking right when you're super sleepy."

He looks a little confused. "I'm kind of always super sleepy." When he sees that xer smile only gets more devious, he slaps himself on the forehead and gives a little chuckle. "Okay, I walked right into that one. Well played."

Samia examines her podium with an intense stare, and she begins tapping her fingers on it. "So, I'm glad that we've cleared that up, but now we're gone and raised an interesting point. I hadn't really thought about it before, but it sounds like the culprit hid themselves in the dining hall last night."

"That would match up with when Takumi was killed," Michio agrees. "They would have had to stay behind after murdering him to set up the scene. Plus, it's not like they could just waltz out of there after their job was done."

"The dining hall should have still had that symbol on it… Even if they couldn't see it, does that mean that they still weren't allowed to leave?" Kazuha sounds unsure of herself.

Shizu nods grimly. "That's right. After the culprit killed Takumi, they allowed themselves to be locked inside the dining hall. They must have put more thought into this plan than I originally assumed…" She looks over at everyone's faces, seeing if she can parse out any suspicious activity, but nothing jumps out at her. "Until 8 AM today, they were still inside with the body."

Ultimate Trial Suspended